Building the ship while sailing it: Lessons on Sustainability Entrepreneurship from the USA - Talking Transformations with Arnim Wiek

This episode discusses the importance of breaking up silos within municipalities to achieve sustainability and climate neutrality. Sara Gustafsson, professor at Linköping University, shares her insights on the challenges and benefits of breaking up silos, the EU Cities Mission, and the key lessons learned from governing energy transitions.

In this episode, Lars Johansson from Viable Cities discusses the strategic innovation program aimed at achieving climate neutrality in 48 Swedish cities by 2030. The conversation focuses on the importance of breaking up silos within municipal governance to foster a more collaborative and networked approach. Johansson highlights the need for multi-level governance, stakeholder cooperation, and citizen engagement to address the complex problem of climate change. He shares insights on the quadruple helix approach, the EU cities mission, and the role of climate contracts in creating directionality and accelerating climate transition efforts.

In this episode, Christiaan Norde from the city of Amsterdam discusses the Breaking Up Silos project, focusing on the importance of sustainability and climate action across various departments. He highlights the challenges and benefits of working within and across organizational silos, the role of Amsterdam as a mission city, and the impact of the EU Cities Mission on climate neutrality efforts.

This episode shares insights on the challenges and advantages of working across departments and the impact of a climate investment plan on fostering inter-departmental cooperation. Björn Hugosson, Chief Climate Officer at the City of Stockholm, discusses the importance of breaking up silos within organizations to accelerate climate work. He highlights the need for horizontal collaboration and the benefits of the EU Cities Mission, which aims to make 100 European cities climate neutral by 2030. 

This episode discusses the concept of silos in climate governance and the role of the EU Cities Mission in bridging these silos. Naghmeh Nasiritousi, senior research fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, explains how silos hinder effective climate action and the importance of addressing them. The conversation highlights the need for governance innovations, such as the EU Cities Mission, to bring together various actors and sectors to achieve climate neutrality in cities. The mission's boundary-spanning nature and its potential to bridge silos are emphasized, along with the challenges posed by structural issues like power imbalances and competing interests.

The conversation revolves around the Transform project, a research initiative focused on sustainability entrepreneurship. Professor Jose Di Bello, discusses the project's approach, key lessons, and challenges. Jose shares his experience working with small businesses in the Global South, highlighting the importance of community engagement and participation in sustainability initiatives. Jose highlights the importance of experimentation and testing new solutions in the field, which the Transform project has enabled.Music by Melker Wickenberg

Barry Ness, Director of Lund University's Center for Sustainability Studies, discusses his involvement in the Transform project and his work with sustainability experimentation. Barry shares his experiences with a regional brewery, where he has been working on a hydroponic hop growing experiment. The project aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and create a more sustainable production process. Overall, the interview provides valuable insights into the complexities of sustainability transformation and the need for collaborative efforts to drive meaningful change.Music by Melker Wickenberg

The conversation revolves around the Transform project, a transdisciplinary solution-oriented sustainability project. Professor Arnim Wiek, shares his experiences and insights from working on the project and highlights the importance of cooperation and collaboration in achieving sustainability goals. Arnim shares a specific example of sustainability entrepreneurship in small firms, focusing on cooperative business models: a new food cooperative in Phoenix, Arizona, that developed a Cooperative Food Business Development and Training Program. One of the key findings from the Transform project is the co-evolution of developing cooperative food businesses and building supporting infrastructure and services to achieve sustainability goals.Music by Melker Wickenberg

Sarah Burch, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, shares her insights on sustainability entrepreneurship in small firms, specifically highlighting the case of 100 Kilometer Foods. This organization is a food distributor that aims to build deep relationships with local, sustainable, and regenerative farms, connecting their products to chefs in Toronto. Their goal is to support regenerative agriculture and food retail in big cities. Overall, the case of 100 Kilometer Foods provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of sustainability entrepreneurship in small firms, and highlights the importance of considering multiple aspects of sustainability in business practices.Music by Melker Wickenberg

In this podcast mini-series, we talk with members of the TRANSFORM project, which is a vibrant global partnership helping to accelerate sustainability entrepreneurship in local spaces and cities. The TRANSFORM project works specifically with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to experiment with fundamentally transformative business models and practices. In this episode, professor Sarah Burch, introduces the Transform project and highlights the importance of building capacity among SMEs to design and implement potentially transformative sustainability experiments. Overall, the conversation highlights the importance of collaboration, experimentation, and capacity-building in driving sustainability transitions, and the need for a more nuanced understanding of transformation as a complex, human-centered phenomenon.Music by Melker Wickenberg